Not all churches practice it. I do not. But a very large number of Christians do. The ash symbolizes that we are from the dust and will return to the dust. Lent, itself, is a forty-six day period of fasting representing the forty days of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. The six Sundays in Lent are not fasting days, hence forty days of fasting in a forty-six day period.

Stuart Varney ended his career at CNN after Ted Turner called Christians who participate in Ash Wednesday “Jesus Freaks”. It is inevitable that someone, each year, makes an insulting comment about faithful worshippers today.

Try not to be that guy. The cross on the forehead, which will probably be more a smudge by the afternoon, is supposed to be there.